By Mike Bowen, co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
Two brothers, Henry Nathaniel (Nat) and Robert Martin, were struck by the same arrow when Indians were stealing their father’s horses in August of 1864.
George Martin, along with his sons, Nat and Robert, were loading hay in Nebraska when Sioux Indians made a raid and attempted to kill them. Some accounts say the Sioux were accompanied by Cheyenne Dog Soldiers (warriors). An Indian shot an arrow that went through Nat and into Robert, while they were riding on the same horse.
According to a depredation claim by George Martin, his boys miraculously were not killed. It’s an amazing account of survival. They pretended to be dead so the Indians would cease their attack on them. However, the Indians wanted to make sure the boys were dead, so an Indian struck Robert in the head multiple times. The boys continued to lie there, motionless.
Another son of George, William, provided his account of that day:
“The day he was attacked by the Indians…I was herding cattle. As I was driving the cattle up in the evening, my mother ran out and cried to me that the Indians were after my father, and told me to run to the house. I left the cattle and ran to the house, and tied my pony to the door. My father was harvesting hay when he was attacked, and he ran to the house, the Indians following him tolerably close to the house, where they got my pony, saddle and bridle. When the Indians started to go to where my brothers were, about a half mile from the house, we all left the house and started for a place of safety, taking with us 2 stallions and leaving 2 colts, and 4 stage horses, in the stable. When we had gone about 400 yards, one of the stallions that had been shot, staggered, laid down, and died. We went on, and came back to the house the next day and found that the Indians had stolen the 2 colts, but not the stage horses; they probably did not see them; they had also taken the mare which my brothers were riding. The most of the things were taken, and that which they did not take, they destroyed.” (George Martin Indian Depredation Claim #4393. Record Group 123 – Cheyenne War – Indians Raids on the Roads to Denver 1864-1869. pp 119-121, Broome, Jeff.)
George Bent wrote in a letter to historian George Hyde that the Cheyenne were raiding all along from the Platte in Colorado Territory to the Little Blue River in Nebraska in the summer of 1864 (Bent to Hyde, 3-19-1906). The Martins were not aware of other Indian attacks such as the Eubank murders and captures, which took place near the Little Blue River, less than 50 miles away. The Martins were just trying to work hard and have a good life in America. The attack on them and others including the Plum Creek Massacre, Robert McGee, the Eubank family and the Hungate family in Colorado Territory were all likely catalysts for Sand Creek. The Hungate family murders was certainly a main catalyst, per Sand Creek soldier testimony. Some of the Eubank family members were likely held captive at Sand Creek. See a blog about Plum Creek here: PlumCreek.
From Henry Nathaniel (Nat):
“My father was a native of England, and came to this country about 1850…In 1862, my father located on the same piece of land which he subsequently took up as his homestead, situated in the Platte valley, on the emigrant road, from Nebraska City to Fort Kearny, about 30 miles from the latter place, in what is now Hall County, Neb. At this time he had about 32 head of cattle, 2 mares, 2 stallions, and 1 gelding. He built a sod house, dirt roof and dirt floor, two rooms in the house. He also built a sod barn with dirt floors and roof. About a year later his place was made a Stage station, and remained such until the Union Pacific Railroad was built. It was an eating station, and a stock tender was stationed there to take care of the stock. In the latter part of August, 1864, as near as I can recollect, my father, my younger brother, and I, were engaged in making hay. On that day, the stock tender (whose first name was Charley, and whose last name I have forgotten), had gone down the road to Bateman’s ranch, 4 or 5 miles, taking a horse that had come into the ranch that morning, and which had the Government brand on it. We afterwards learned that it belonged to a party of soldiers, who had had a fight with the Indians a day or two before about 17 miles south, on the West Blue.
There was no one at the ranch that day, except my father’s family. There had been no Indian depredations in that part of the country, up to that time, of which we had heard, and we did not know of the fight on the Blues (Eubank) until afterwards. We were cutting hay wherever we could find it, along the Platte, but could only get it in small patches, and had to haul it in to the house as soon as we had got enough for a stack, to keep the freighters from using it. It was early in the hay season, and we had got enough for one stack hauled, and about half of it hauled, having a big stack started, and about 10 tons on it, and were hauling in more. My father was driving the team, with the 2 stallions, and was about half a mile ahead of me and my brother. About a week before this, one of the mares had been bitten by a snake and died, leaving us with only the 3 horses, my father having sold the gelding before, so that we had to hitch up a pair of raw steers, and hitch the other mare in front as a leader, and that was the team my brother Robert and I had. As we were going home with our loads of hay, I saw a party of 8 or 10 Indians attack my father, and shoot at him with bows and arrows, and finally he ran his team into the house. My brother and I unhitched the cattle from the wagon, and both got on the old mare, and started for home, which was about a mile distant. Before we could get there, the Indians attacked us, shooting us several times, and finally pinned us together with an arrow, when we fell off the horse. In the fall, the arrow pulled through my body, and remained sticking in my brother’s back. When the Indians came up to us, we pretended to be dead; they took the lines tied to the mare, and which had been tangled up with us, and untwisted them from us, cut the harness off the mare except the bridle, struck my brother on the head several times, to be sure he was dead, and then left us. I saw them go to the house, load their ponies, and ride off south. Brother and I went on to the house, and got there a little before dark, to find it all torn up and deserted.
The corn, fed, flour, meal, and everything, was strewed together; there was about 300 bushels of corn, 20 bushels of oats, and about 700 lbs. of flour; they took off about 500 lbs. of the flour, and mixed the remainder up with the grain. The bedding was all gone, the feather beds torn open and the feathers scattered over the house, the trunks and boxes all broken open and their contents gone, except my box,—cracker box,—and the under part of my mother’s trunk; they did not know enough to raise the till of the trunk; the stove was mashed; that is all I can say about the house.
They had gone to the stable and taken the 2 sucking colts; there were 4 stage horses in the stable, and the doors were standing open, but they had not been taken; it was supposed they did not look in. They took off the mare that my brother and I were riding.
We stayed that night in the house, as I was too weak to go away. The next day my father and his family got back to the ranch with a train going east; they had started to go to Bateman’s, when they saw us fall off the mare, and thought we had been killed. They had not gone far when they met the stock tender, Charley, coming back; but before that, one of the stallions lay down and refused to go any further; he had been shot right behind the fore leg; the Indians cut the stallion’s throat, so my father told me afterwards. After meeting Charley, they went on westward, by Bateman’s ranch, and overtook a train going west; they went with that train till they met the one going east, and then returned to see what had become of us. They found us in the stable, and we all started for Nebraska City; we went on down the road, but I was not able to travel far, so we took possession of a deserted house on the road, and remained there several weeks, during which time my father returned the horse with the Government brand, to the Commanding officer, at Fort Kearney” (George Martin Indian Depredation Claim #4393. Record Group 123 – Cheyenne War – Indians Raids on the Roads to Denver 1864-1869. pp 119-121, Broome, Jeff.).
The Martin brothers were victims of the brutality of Sioux and likely Cheyenne warriors.
Bent said the Sioux and Cheyenne were one and the same. “Sioux and Cheyennes have been living together for over 100 years” (Bent to Hyde, 8-16-1911). They lived among each other and raided together. “I went with Cheyennes in April 1863…That country was over run with Sioux and Cheyennes then” (Bent to Hyde, 1-12-1906).
According to a family story, the Indians nearly scalped the two boys but decided against it. “Pappoose’s scalp no good,” Indians are reported to have said.
A photo shows Nat in his older years holding the arrows that the Indians fired at him and his brother. Nat was able to live into his late seventies. Robert only lived into his forties. There are also three different bronze sculptures showing the boys with an arrow through them. One is at the Hastings Museum, another can be found at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, and a third is in front of the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney.
Attacks like this were plentiful during the summer of 1864. The Martin brothers were young innocent boys. George Bent even called the Dog Soldiers “outlaws” (Bent to Hyde 6-20-1904). It seems clear why George wasn’t called to testify in any of the three hearings following Sand Creek. When he wrote letters to historians over 30 years after Sand Creek, he talked openly about the atrocities committed by the Dog Soldiers. He knew and admitted too much, and Lt. Col. Sam Tappan likely didn’t want George’s testimony to be a detriment to the Sand Creek massacre narrative. By the time George was writing historians, starting in 1870, the massacre moniker had already been set, but he didn’t follow that narrative. He referred to Sand Creek as a battle, a fight, or affair (16 times total) more than he called it a massacre (five times). He also talked about all of the wagon train raids, killing white settlers and scalping them, taking captives, stealing horses and cattle including from the government, among other events that took place several months before Sand Creek. See more about George in chapter four of our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
The Martin family worked hard, kept to themselves, and not only were they unaware of the other raids in the area before them, they likely didn’t know about Sand Creek. However, others did know what was going on, such as General Curtis, Major Scott Anthony and soldier Lant Williams. See our last blog here: SandCreekOtherStateConnections.
Indians were making raids and attacking white settlers along the Platte and other places in Colorado Territory, just as they were in Nebraska when they raided the Martin family, and murdered and captured members of the Eubank family. All of those events would have been catalysts to the formation of the 3rd Colorado Cavalry and General Curtis ordering soldiers to fight the Indians. Colonel Chivington was just following orders.
When people claim that Sand Creek was an unprovoked attack on a defenseless and peaceful village, that is simply not the case. See our blog about white scalps found at Sand Creek here: WhiteScalps. A peaceful village would not have white scalps. It also shows there were warriors in Black Kettle’s village. The Indians at Sand Creek were indeed armed. Read about Robert McFarland in chapter six of our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site. Also check out our short film about McFarland here: JamesCarrLetter.
Not only do soldier accounts make the claim the Indians were armed, Chuck Bowen found arrowheads at the Lost Sand Creek Site. He also found a lot of bullets, and some of those could have been from Indians.
Chuck found over 4,000 village and battle artifacts at what is called the Lost Sand Creek Site, the real location of Black Kettle’s village and battle areas. Interestingly, the village site and battle areas are two different locations. Very little fighting took place in the village. The overwhelming majority of battle artifacts were found on the opposite side of the creek from the village site and miles up the creek.
The Bowens’ discovery of over 4,000+ artifacts is truly a preponderance of evidence that has been lied about and minimized—this discovery actually substantiates the running battle account from soldiers such as Irving Howbert, Morse Coffin, Lant Williams and many others. The massacre claim is what’s told by the National Park Service and that claim has never been verified by physical evidence. The false massacre story was created by Lt. Col. Sam Tappan and Lying John Smith to destroy Colonel Chivington—it’s now being used in an attempt to destroy patriotism. The intent is for people to hear all about how terrible white soldiers were. When in fact, the artifacts and eyewitness accounts show Sand Creek was a hard-fought fight that went on for several hours covering several miles in multiple directions. Even George Bent talks about other warriors such as Little Bear, and he said that men fought off soldiers while they were getting into rifle pits (Bent to Hyde 4-30-1913).
None of us were there—we can only get our information from those that were. The eyewitnesses and locations artifacts were found tell a clear story of a running battle. There were also over 70 soldier casualties which couldn’t be the case if it were only defenseless women, children and elderly.
There is a lot of information about Sand Creek that has been withheld from the public. The truth needs to be known. Knowledge is power.
Learn the truth about Sand Creek. It’s imperative that we learn from accurate history.
Truth matters. Truth wins.
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